This is completely NOT trying to flaunt anything. I just got a strange urge to post pics of my first ever soap experiments (very small batch M&P), and tell you how they went horribly wrong.
The first soap I ever made. As sort of a joke, I wanted to make curry soap for my brother. I used Kashmiri curry and added plenty of pumice, to make it a good mechanic's soap. (He works on his Lotus quite a bit, as owners of British cars tend to do.) I didn't really know how to tell when it was thick enough that the pumice wouldn't settle out- and after a bit of stirring, it suddenly got VERY thick. I packed it in dough-like globs into the mold. It came out with a speckled gray effect, somewhere between concrete and sweat pants. I rather like this one, and you can probably tell by looking at it, that I've been using it a bit.
Two views of my second attempt. Olive oil, scented with an obscene amount of peppermint EO (I think I mis-read something....) and lavender FO. The peppermint smell is overwhelming. I did not know before I added the lavender buds, that they would eventually look like mouse droppings. I also did not know the little things float! (I should have figured that.) Perhaps letting the base cool a bit more would suspend more of the buds instead of leaving them on top-----
[i]if[/i] I ever try putting them in a base again.
This one oddly has a very oily sweat to it- perhaps because of the large quantity of EO. None of the other soaps have had this.
Next up, more olive oil base, with loofah embedded. (I finally found a use for the yard-long piece of it I bought some time ago in Tarpon Springs.) I mixed in some lavender & lemongrass EO, but managed to use too much lemongrass. It smells like lemon Pledge. I used some cheap liquid dye (a bit of orange and a bit of purple), and it came out a very nice dark amber colour. (My camera's exposure went a bit high for an accurate effect.)
This is very simple- just honey M&P with a touch of very subtle lavender EO. I added in ground up apricot seeds, and yet again, missed the target temperature for proper suspension.
Finally, one that seems to have gone right. Shea butter base with peppermint EO (a much more reasonable amount this time). I coloured it with cheap liquid dye and opalescent green mica. Hard to see the sparkly effect of the mica in the shot, but it's rather pleasing.
Now, if I can get these little experiments spot on, I can branch out and try something more advanced.....
Be well
-UF
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